Ideally dump R&P period from the site but I suppose if they insist on having R&P here, I 1000% agree that it should have its own forum. Taking it away seemed really silly and nothing has happened in Off-Topic since it happened to change my mind.

My first assumption was that they were doing the same thing they did with that other political topic, ie: close the board and ban the topic.

But that's not what they did. They closed the board but the topic is still allowed, because reasons?So I have no idea what the goal was, and I don't believe they've ever told us.

Whatever the case, they've gone about this in probably the worst possible way. All they did was take away a tool, a function, a feature of the site, didn't replace it with anything or make any other policy changes, and expected everyone to just 'cope'.

Still got no idea why they did that in the first place. What did they even gain by removing R&P? Considering Russ isn't behind things anymore either, the new, big, bombastic Escapist relaunch sounds more like a floundering flab of mush. It's been almost a year, and what's happened? We've deleted sub-forums, made a stink in the community with a get over it attitude because of their "vision," and launched a 2.0 website that looks like someone got over-zealous with the Windows 8 menu tiles.

I mean, I appreciate the fact anything's being done at all, it's better than being under the past ownership and having nothing going on. I'm not exactly brimming with positive energy a year later though

Elvis Starburst:Still got no idea why they did that in the first place. What did they even gain by removing R&P? Considering Russ isn't behind things anymore either, the new, big, bombastic Escapist relaunch sounds more like a floundering flab of mush. It's been almost a year, and what's happened? We've deleted sub-forums, made a stink in the community with a get over it attitude because of their "vision," and launched a 2.0 website that looks like someone got over-zealous with the Windows 8 menu tiles.

I mean, I appreciate the fact anything's being done at all, it's better than being under the past ownership and having nothing going on. I'm not exactly brimming with positive energy a year later though

It was a pretty uninspiring rebirth, all things considered.

Almost feels like they ran out of funding for the changes they wanted and now the site is just floundering along.

it's beautiful. in a very depressing sort of way. but some people can't escape politics even if they wanted to. this is rather tame in comparison. what I'd do is not bother logging in if avoidance is desired. it's a brave move, yes, one must fight those bodily urges, whatever they may be. with literal fire if needs must. burn the treacherous hormones! not too much though; fire is contagious and often deadly. and I'd prefer to accidentally inspire more humane shuffling off mortal coils when possible. also, maybe 'fire' was a metaphor and the word 'literal' was a metaphor for 'metaphorical.' in fact, all these words might separately be metaphors for the complete opposite of their meaning. if it keeps me out of a harsh sentencing at least

Marik2:Wasnt there an escapist add on that lets people hide threads they dont want to see? It would be good for those who dont want to see religion and politics.

Think that was the one made by Bluegate, who was a mod for a bit, and then they demodded him, so he stopped updating it.

That's not why I stopped updating it, I made it for the benefit of the users of this forum, not for the moderators'.

I stopped updating it because I simply ran out of ideas to add 🤷‍♂️ Later I decided to put it on ice and wait for the new forums to launch, but that's taking a lot longer than expected. If people have suggestions, then I'd be happy to add them.

I did create a little something-something to help clear up this POLITICS business, but I figured that V2 would roll out quickly so I never bothered to add it to the plugin. Maybe I should?

Click For ScreenshotPHA+PGltZyBzcmM9Imh0dHA6Ly9pNjUudGlueXBpYy5jb20vMnc3ZmZhYi5qcGciIGFsdD0iaW1hZ2UiLz48L3A+

.looks nice, but I'm sure you'd have polished it more had the forums were moved to v2.

"Your rights end where mine begin".

++1 naisu..

Red Sentinel:My first assumption was that they were doing the same thing they did with that other political topic, ie: close the board and ban the topic.

But that's not what they did. They closed the board but the topic is still allowed, because reasons?So I have no idea what the goal was, and I don't believe they've ever told us.

Whatever the case, they've gone about this in probably the worst possible way. All they did was take away a tool, a function, a feature of the site, didn't replace it with anything or make any other policy changes, and expected everyone to just 'cope'.

Three things guaranteed to start a fight in a pub - religion, politics, and football (which is a combination of the other two to many people). And yet despite this, R&P is one of the most hotly debated topics on the Internet (probably because the chances of having a pint glass scopped at your head over the Internet are slim to none). :)

Drathnoxis:It was an incomprehensible decision made for the seeming benefit of no one and time has not made things clearer.

I think the thing that bothers me is we're allowed to post political stuff so long as its labeled. So obviously they didn't care about political topics, just that there was a designated subform for them?

Drathnoxis:It was an incomprehensible decision made for the seeming benefit of no one and time has not made things clearer.

I think the thing that bothers me is we're allowed to post political stuff so long as its labeled. So obviously they didn't care about political topics, just that there was a designated subform for them?

I got some kind of impression from blue posts at the time that R&P may have had some kind of relaxed moderation, so possibly they did this to normalize standards across the board. I imagine its done SFA in general considering how slow everything moves now and the lack of notable new topics. If you were gonna get banned over any given "trump did this thing and now I'm ANGRY" threads it probably would have happened before this.

The cynical part of me is leaning more towards this being some kind of "we're still here and doing stuff!" statement than anything else. Little if any visible progress is made on the new front page, the content plods on at a so-so pace... Better do something to make sure people know we're still here! Kind of reinforced by the fact that the only time we see the mods or CM making any particular posts about anything, in spite of the fact that they either know nothing or aren't allowed to say it if they do, comes after this. Then the posting fades to the normal background state of almost zero a couple days later after a few trivial posts about this or that topic very distinctly not about the issue that woke them up. Thank goodness they know we're still here, we can relax again.

I dunno. Considering its become obvious that the team is gonna do whatever they want regardless of the forum opinion, and the fact that no effort was made to preserve threads or even just give warning before the axe fell so those who cared could do it themselves, why even bother with these changes? It just creates vague annoyances, in exchange for vaguely annoyed people. Its like they know they're gonna spike the forums but haven't come to peace with it so they make due by quietly carving bits of it away.

That there is too much R&P in the Off-topic forum is one perspective. But the other is that there's not enough non-political off-topic discussion - so get thread-making and talking about non-political stuff.

Silent Protagonist:I said it at the time and I'll say it again. They thought they were closing R&P but they actually closed Off-topic

Certainly seems that way. I sort of wonder if they only did it this way because they were sick of manually transferring political threads made in off-topic to the R&P forum, and this was their band-aid solution.

Silent Protagonist:I said it at the time and I'll say it again. They thought they were closing R&P but they actually closed Off-topic

Certainly seems that way. I sort of wonder if they only did it this way because they were sick of manually transferring political threads made in off-topic to the R&P forum, and this was their band-aid solution.

If I remember correctly, one of the mods for the R&P forum did not have a positive view of the place. I assume modding R&P was also seen as a not favorable thing to do. And given that they got rid of the modless WW, I guess they didn't want to keep a violate forum open without moderation support.

I think the options were to combine extra subforums or get rid of them and I will take combining them any day over completely losing them.

I do think putting the [TAGS] makes it worse though than just having all the topics mixed up together. Just posting normally would make more sense. With just about anything being considered political you would have to put "[Poltics] Asshole Kicks Puppy" these days just to be safe. :p

I guess they didn't want to keep a violate forum open without moderation support.

Then why didn't they just hold R&P to the same standard as everywhere else? That would've required 0 extra work and been a lot better for everyone else who want to keep politics out of their sub-forums

I guess they didn't want to keep a violate forum open without moderation support.

Then why didn't they just hold R&P to the same standard as everywhere else? That would've required 0 extra work and been a lot better for everyone else who want to keep politics out of their sub-forums

Because the people there would complain. And they're really good at complaining.

I guess they didn't want to keep a violate forum open without moderation support.

Then why didn't they just hold R&P to the same standard as everywhere else? That would've required 0 extra work and been a lot better for everyone else who want to keep politics out of their sub-forums

Because the people there would complain. And they're really good at complaining.